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Welcome to “Seven Days in Europe”. Each week EUtopia law will summarise the week’s happenings in Europe and highlight selected stories from the press.

The eurozone may be on the brink of collapse, and the EU struggling to find a united position on Palestine’s upcoming UN bid, but the EU policy that was apparently of most concern to the UK press last week was the upcoming ban on 60W incandescent light bulbs. An EU-wide ban on the manufacturing and importing of the bulbs came into force on 1 September. In response to the ban shop owners are stockpiling old bulbs in anticipation of demand. One shopkeeper interviewed by the BBC took issue with the new policy being ‘forced’ upon the UK ‘like a dictatorship’. Euromove posted a robust response to this, arguing that ‘the strategic decision was enacted in a regulation drafted by the European Commission with the formal involvement of stakeholders such as consumer and environmental NGOs, approved by a committee of experts nominated by the member states, and then approved by the European Parliament. It is hard to think of a process less like that of a dictatorship.’

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EUtopia law was founded by members of Matrix Chambers' EU law group. It aims at commenting selectively on interesting developments in EU law, particularly as they affect lawyers' practice areas, and at contributing to the debate on topical issues.